In known end milling cutters having indexable inserts, the inserts are arranged on the periphery of the tool and fastened thereto by means of clamping screws. When machining a surface whose height is greater than the height presented by the cutting edge of a single insert, an extended flute milling cutter is used whereby several inserts are arranged along the periphery of the tool in such an arrangement so as to effectively constitute a single long cutting edge.
The extended flute milling cutter, which is efficient for rough end milling operations, has several disadvantages when performing finishing operations: (i) radial mismatch between the inserts, on the same flute or on different flutes, causes unevenness of the machined surface, (ii) the angular pitch between the inserts decreases web thickness and thereby tool strength, (iii) the reliability of the entire tool depends on many components thereby increasing the chance for failure.
When performing finishing applications with tools having replaceable inserts at high speeds, e.g. in the range of 10,000 to 30,000 rpm, stability problems limits the use of conventional clamping systems.
In view of the foregoing, it should be apparent that there exists a need to provide a cutting tool that will eliminate, or reduce to within acceptable limits, the above mentioned problems and disadvantages.